In <20050608143226(_dot_)1b3cbe41(_dot_)moore(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu>
Keith Moore <moore(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu> writes:
- Even when people hit the right button, (i.e. "reply to author" or
"reply all") the behavior of an MUA in the presence of reply-to or
other header fields is often surprising to the user, because these
fields are either difficult to notice or not displayed at all.
In every mail agent I have used, the compose window starts out showing
editable fields for To: and Cc:. So if you don't like what it offers
initially, you just change it. I grant you that any agent that fails to
provide that is severely broken, but what agents are that bad?
[And, to confuse the issue, I discovered yesterday that Outlook provides
such a field entitled "From", but what you type in there actually turns
into the Reply-To header of the sent message, and the From header contains
what should have been in the Sender. Doh!]
Just in case it isn't clear, I have no objection to defining a new header field
which is set by lists (and only by lists), and which says in effect, "if you
want to reply to the list, use this address." However, without substantial
changes to the UIs of MUAs, such a field won't be terribly useful, and may
even be harmful if it produces less consistent behavior than at present.
We need:
1. A header to be set by the list maintainer.
2. A header to be set by the user, to control where replies to list go
(and in particular whether he gets a private copy or not).
3. A header to be set by the user to control where personal (non-list)
replies go.
And rules to determins which takes priority if they conflict.
I think it is clear that Reply-To is the proper header for #3. Whether
you actually need separate headers for #1 and #2 is a topic for dicussion.
Note that such a field is NOT the same as Mail-Followup-To, which was
intended to be set by message originators. Trying to equate the two
doesn't lend credibility to your arguments.
I believe the current intention for MFT is to cover both #1 and #2. That
certainly is my reading of Jacob Palme's draft.
--
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Tel: +44 161 436 6131 Fax: +44 161 436 6133 Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
Email: chl(_at_)clerew(_dot_)man(_dot_)ac(_dot_)uk Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave,
CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K.
PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5